Travel

Wiki says – A gourmand is a person who either takes great pleasure in food,
a person given to excess in the consumption of food and drink, a greedy eater,
or a ravenous eater.

What I didn’t tell you – on my last visit to France, I endured

(1)

Baguette mornings and some evenings,

I worked through these

(2,3)

I suffered these

(4)

Come to Mama!

But I need to bring up in today’s blog something of the French dna that I have
observed during my visits to this country. As many of you know, the French is
going through a wake-up call after the events of the past week … the horrific
deaths of the editor and staff of their satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo,
at the hands of terrorist gunmen.
Their September 11.

I’ve never met a French I didn’t like. A bit of an exaggeration, but …
in my halting, sometimes stammering French, they’ve responded, engaged with me,
in their halting, sometimes stammering English.

The French are a proud people. Proud of their heritage, history, culture, and arts.

The French work. Tirelessly. The proof is in their bread –

Meet Ridha Kadher, the winner of the best baguette for 2013.
Out of 203 Parisian bakers, he won €4,000 and earned the honour of supplying
baguettes to the Elysées Palace, the presidential residence, for a whole year.

(5)

When asked for a photo after our chat,
he gladly posed for one but not before asking his wife to join him.
Sweeeeet.

(6)

(7)

Mr. Kadher, with roots from Tunisia, came to France as a young boy,
and started baking at fifteen, working side by side with his brother.
Indeed, he has come a long way. He now owns his own boulangerie,
Au Paradis du Gourmand.
His secret is « hard work and his mother’s recipe, a 24-hour ‘rest’ to allow the dough
to absorb water and hydrate for his traditional baguette, (5 hours for a regular one) ».